I was ostracized by my community.
CLAUDETTE COLVINAs long as white people put people of color, African Americans and Latinos, in the same dispensable bag, and look at our children of color as insignificant and treat women of color as not as deserving of protection as white women, we will never achieve true equality.
More Claudette Colvin Quotes
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When you’ve been abused daily and you see people humiliated and harassed, you just get tired of it.
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There were many African Americans – many, many stories similar to my story.
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I became aware of how the world is and how the white establishment plays black people against each other.
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Being dragged off that bus was worth it just to see Barack Obama become president, because so many others gave their lives and didn’t get to see it, and I thank God for letting me see it.
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I left the South in 1963 and was living in Morristown, New Jersey, when the March on Washington took place, so I watched it on television instead.
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What do we have to do to make God love us?’ I always grew up with that. I always used to go around thinking that. ‘God loved the white people better. He must’ve. That’s why he made them white.’
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I sleep when the sleep comes down on me.
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Rosa Parks wasn’t the first one to rebel against the segregated seats. I was the first one.
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When I told my mother I was pregnant, I thought she was going to have a heart attack.
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I never swore when I was young.
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I’d like my grandchildren to be able to see that their grandmother stood up for something, a long time ago.
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The light-skinned girls always thought they were better looking. So did the teachers, too. That meant most of the dark complexion ones didn’t like themselves.
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A lot of African American women wanted to emulate white women. But I said in my mind, rationally thinking, there is no way you are going to get your hair that straight, especially in the summer.
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I wanted the young African-American girls also on the bus to know that they had a right to be there, because they had paid their fare just like the white passengers.
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I lost most of my friends. Their parents had told them to stay away from me, because they said I was crazy, I was an extremist.
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